


pay no attention (to the man behind the curtain)

by setgo



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Coworkers to Not Coworkers, Gen, No Romance, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:48:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26142856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setgo/pseuds/setgo
Summary: Sadayo Kawakami doesn't pay much mind to the nervous-faced man who wears a lab coat and drains apple juice cartons like most adults chug coffee. Takuto Maruki is weird, sure, but Shujin is weird. The students are weird. Hell, Sadayo is weird, even if she pretends otherwise.He'll be gone by the end of year, anyway. She has other things to worry about.Kawakami and Maruki's brief, mostly awkward stint as coworkers and something that could be called acquaintanceship. What good are teachers if they don't believe in their students?
Relationships: Kawakami Sadayo & Kurusu Akira, Kawakami Sadayo & Maruki Takuto
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	pay no attention (to the man behind the curtain)

**Author's Note:**

> i'm just gonna put this up here but this is not a ship fic between kawakami and akira and if you came here expecting that. Leave. i do not respect teacher/student ships and am still attempting to break into ATLUS hq to remove all adult romances from p5's source code
> 
> anyway, this fic has royal spoilers! watch out for that

Dr. Maruki is, at first glance, nobody that Sadayo Kawakami thinks she'll pay much attention to. Teachers come and go from Shujin all the time, and Kawakami doesn't know and doesn't care enough to check if it's a normal rate. She's busy.

Really, the man is only notable in his awkwardness and his timing. It's obvious that Kobayakawa only hired him for PR after the whole… _everything_ with Kamoshida. Whether he's actually good at his job or is here for more than a paycheck, well, that's not important unless it becomes important.

But overall, Sadayo Kawakami doesn't pay much mind to the nervous-faced man who wears a lab coat and drains apple juice cartons like most adults chug coffee. He's weird, sure, but Shujin is weird. The students are weird. Hell, _Sadayo_ is weird, even if she pretends otherwise.

He'll be gone by the end of year, anyway. She has other things to worry about.

* * *

It starts in the teacher's lounge. Kawakami is standing by the coffee machine, staring blankly at the array of generic coffee mugs lining the shelves and praying for time to suddenly accelerate forward so she can go home and sleep already.

It's been a very long week.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Dr. Maruki gives a nervous smile at her, holding up a colorful cylindrical packet of _umaibo_ to his coworker. Kawakami eyes it skeptically, before gently pulling one from his hand. She's not five, but the smell of artificial flavoring and oversalted corn that will definitely shorten her lifespan offers a fraction of comfort as she cracks open the plastic.

"Nothing exciting, sorry to say. Just… tired."

Dr. Maruki _hms_ sympathetically, tucking away the _umaibo_ into his coat pocket and pulling out a tiny juice box decorated with a cartoon dog.

"I can imagine. I only just got here, and it seems everyone is scrambling to deal with that incident. The teachers, the students, the parents… this is the first time Shujin's had such a controversy, isn't it?"

 _No, not really,_ Sadayo doesn't say, thinking back at the year before, where a black-haired Sakamoto had seethed silently in the corner of a office bandaged in crutches and fury while Kamoshida calmly listed all the reasons he was a failure and a danger to society with a smile on his face.

 _But we shouldn't expel Sakamoto for one mistake,_ he had smiled, _he is just a teenager after all, and we all know how rash they can be._

Had it been a smirk? Sadayo can't remember. She hadn't really been paying attention.

Sadayo thinks back to five years ago, doesn't mention an imposed transfer, or extra tutoring, or a car crash.

"We've had disciplinary issues with students before, but nothing with the teachers, and especially not anything this big."

Dr. Maruki nods in understanding.

"It must be tough," He starts, realizing something, "I'm Takuto Maruki, by the way, um, and your name is…?

He looks so nervous that Kawakami doesn't ever bother pointing out she already knows his name. "Sadayo Kawakami. I'm a Japanese literature teacher."

Maruki nods brightly, "Ah, I was never too good at that when I was in high school! More… science focused, um, hahah." They stare at each other. Maruki clears his throat in embarrassment. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Kawakami-san! I look forward to working with you and the rest of the staff."

"Right."

"By the way, I'm supposed to talk to certain students, but I'm afraid I don't really know who they are yet. Is there a register somewhere?"

* * *

Somehow, they keep running into each other.

It isn't really a _somehow,_ Shujin isn't that big of a school. Kawakami sees all of the faculty every day, but she hardly _talks_ to them every day. Maruki isn't exactly a social butterfly either, as far as Kawakami sees, but he does have what seems to be the worst luck in the world.

"Oh - Kawakami-san! Sorry, I didn't see you there."

Maruki stands under the entrance to Shujin, frantically shaking his coat of rainwater. His glasses are completely fogged up, and his hair presses against his face like a dead animal. A very wet dead animal.

"...Are you okay?" Kawakami asks from under the shelter of her umbrella.

Maruki pulls his fogged-up glasses from his face and begins rubbing a sopping corner of his shirt on the lenses. "Yes, I just ran into an individual who had forgotten their umbrella on the way here. So I lent him mine, and… well…" he lets out another nervous chuckle, "I didn't have a spare. I figured my coat would be enough, but, clearly I was wrong! It's okay though. He seemed thankful."

"That's…" Kawakami holds the door for him. Maruki's shoes leave wet imprints on the floor as he passes through the entrance, "Nice of you."

Maruki continues to fruitlessly rub his glasses with his wet shirt, before a sudden realization passes over his face.

"Ah, shoot!" He checks his phone, the LED display now laced with droplets, "I'm supposed to have a meeting now! Thank you, Kawakami-san, I'll see you later!"

_Okay._

* * *

Sadayo would definitely not call her and Maruki friends, not by any stretch of the imagination. She doesn't even have his phone number. They're acquaintances at best, with a slight rapport built up by virtue that, at the very least, Dr. Maruki doesn't actively antagonize the students.

He is, however, extremely bad at normal conversation topics.

"Teachers should guide and mold their students so they can best fulfill their dreams, right?"

"I… don't know about _molding._ "

They're standing again in the teacher's lounge. Kawakami is waiting for the coffee machine to finish her second cup (the one she drinks before third period) when Maruki had walked in to use the printer. And, for some reason, he thinks now is an appropriate time to talk.

"Ahah, bad word choice. This is why I'm not a literature teacher." Maruki rubs the back of his neck, "Just… imagine if you saw a student doing something that you knew was a mistake, and they won't listen to your advice no matter what… what would you do?"

"Um…" Sadayo doesn't want to say _send them to you because you're supposed to be the school counselor,_ "Well, if they won't listen to me I guess… that's something they're really determined to do. So let them do it."

"Huh? Even if you know it would hurt them?" Maruki is utterly befuddled, as he's prone to be. 

"Sometimes there are things you can't do anything about. Besides," she sighs, "It's impossible to force teenagers to do anything. Their business is their own."

"Is that what you think…" Maruki looks down at his own drink, the usual juice pouch.

She is honestly too tired to engage in hefty, philosophical debates about the nature of teaching, so when a red-haired first year with a curling, bouncy ponytail swings open the door, she's thankful for the intrusion.

"Oh! Dr. Maruki, is this a bad time?" The girl asks.

"Ah, Yoshizawa-san! It's..." Maruki looks over to Kawakami, who shrugs.

"You go ahead."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to intrude…" Yoshizawa says, pressing her bright-red shoes together as she shifts her stance in the doorway.

"No, I've got papers to grade." Sadayo does, but she's not going to do them tonight.

"Well, if that's the case," Maruki smiles, standing up from his seat and gesturing to the open door "Yoshizawa-san, we can head to my office? I have snacks!"

Kasumi Yoshizawa beams.

_\- wait, hadn't the register said -_

No, that's right. Kasumi Yoshizawa. Sadayo remembers now. Another transfer student. Not a delinquent charity case, but a star gymnast and model student.

The door clicks shut behind them, and Sadayo is left alone with nothing but a splitting headache. She _really_ needs more sleep.

* * *

Sadayo is halfheartedly dusting Kurusu's desk, covered in pencil shavings and what _looks_ like bent up wire when she sees it.

"...You know, that assignment is due tomorrow." She jabs one finger at the paper, a stubbornly unfinished English assignment on conjugation. The empty lines next to the foreign characters blink out like headlights. "Not to mention exams next week."

"Oh. Right." Kurusu says, looking up from his phone, "...that."

"Are you struggling in English?" She thinks back to the exam results, struggling to remember his scores.

Kurusu doesn't respond to that, expression obscured behind thick glasses and a poker face no kid should have to know.

"I'll manage," he answers, and must realize how unconvincing his sounds when he appends: "Ann - Takamaki, she helps me sometimes."

"Cheating?"

"What? No," Kurusu replies, bristling slightly at the very implication, "with tutoring. She doesn't just give me the answers."

"...Oh." Sadayo feels a little bad at that, then. She probably shouldn't have assumed, even if he is a delinquent. That's a trope in movies, isn't it? Delinquent with a heart of gold?

Though Kurusu doesn't seem to match up with any of _that_ particular mental image.

"Hm. That's good, then, but if you are struggling…" Sadayo trails off, retracting the offer before she can even say it, "...there are plenty of resources in the library, if you need. I could probably point a few out."

"Thank you, Kawakami-sensei."

"You should really get this finished, though," she taps the paper. "Chouno isn't one for extensions."

"Noted."

Kurusu pushes himself off his bed, swiftly stepping around the cat he always carries (currently curled up on the floor) and shoves his phone in his pocket.

"I'm going to make some curry, Kawakami-sensei. Do you want any?"

"...I'm still your teacher, you know."

"It'd be rude not to offer."

She declines the curry, there have to be _some_ boundaries, takes the mostly-empty subway car back to her apartment. 

What she wanted, really -

She thinks back to Takase, his hopeful smile and youthful optimism that emerged every time she guided him through a concept that hadn't quite clicked in class. All snuffed out in an instant.

She needs to sleep.

* * *

"If you could have any wish in the world, Kawakami-san, what would it be?" Maruki says, unprompted, one day. Sadayo is staring at the bottom of her plain blue coffee mug so intently she's half hoping the dregs of liquid to reveal her own fortune. Ideally it's a fortune with tomorrow's exact lottery numbers.

"...Sorry?" She blinks, unsure if she heard correctly.

"Ah, sorry," he replies sheepishly, "I know it's a bit of an odd question, but I've been wondering about things like that lately. A lot of the time, students come in and talk about their dreams for the future, so you could say I've been thinking about it."

"Dreams for the future, huh." She repeats dryly, mostly because she doesn't know what to say.

"Right! Of course, things like dream jobs or being famous, or becoming wildly successful, all of that takes work and luck. But if you could have any wish granted, just like that," Maruki splays his fingers open like a mimicry of a firework, "What would it be?"

It's the kind of hypothetical that makes her want to roll her eyes. But it isn't too surprising for students to be talking about stuff like that. Bright eyed and full of equal parts optimism and anxiety for what lay ahead of them.

Takase had dreams for the future as well. Talked about them, every once in a while, dreams about what college he wanted to go to, about going into law, or maybe chemistry, or maybe even history. It hadn't been very consistent.

Most of all, however, he'd just wanted to graduate.

She stamps that memory down before it can bubble into even more grief.

_I wish Takase's family would leave me alone._

_I wish I didn't have to work dead end night time jobs for their stupid debts._

_I wish that I hadn't fucked everything up._

When Sadayo reaches past that and down into herself, she can't find much of anything there anymore.

Instead, she says:

"I'd like a good night's sleep for once."

Maruki lets out a short, sympathetic laugh at that. 

"Ah, I think a lot of people would say the same thing. Doing your best is a good thing, but the way we're all pressured to give up everything we have for our jobs… it doesn't leave much time to enjoy the life we do have, does it?"

Sadayo stares blankly at her coworker, her throat suddenly dry.

Maruki waves one hand apologetically, then runs it through his ruffled hair, "Sorry, I'm still in counseling mode, I guess! You probably didn't want to hear my lecturing."

"It's… fine." Kawakami says, and for once she isn't lying. For another person to put it so bluntly into words, well, it's a breath of fresh air that she doesn't get much of in the crowded, buzzing city.

Maruki says his goodbyes, a short but polite _I'll see you tomorrow_ and leaves.

Sadayo picks up her bags and begins the routine march back to her apartment, where she'll begin her nighttime routine of makeup and maid-work. Hopefully she'll get some customers tonight, and even more hopefully Kurusu'll be one of them so she doesn't have to worry about slobbering men beckoning them to their dirty couches.

Just… her vacuuming one of her student's floors. So he can slack off.

_Ugh, there's really no way to make that sound good._

There's no use pretending that their arrangement is _comfortable_ for either of them. Especially with Kamoshida's admittance and subsequent jail time, _serves him right,_ Sadayo gets knots hoisting red flags up in her stomach every time she stands outside of Leblanc in a maid outfit and a mop.

She should know better.

But she _needs_ the money, and Kurusu stays out of her business if she offers the same courtesy. His grades haven't even slipped (they've actually gone _up),_ so, it… isn't that weird.

_Really._

And maybe the state of Kurusu's bedroom makes her wrinkle her nose in disgust. The kid has cat hair _everywhere,_ and the weird paraphernalia he's been collecting on the shelves isn't exactly hygienic. Either Kurusu has weird hobbies or weird friends, and Kawakami desperately hopes it's the latter. He needs friends.

She doesn't really care, though, she tells herself, as she stands in the afternoon subway crowds and eyes the last of a bakery's chocolate buns. She decides to buy a bun.

It's only 400 yen.

* * *

Kurusu is the nosiest person she's ever met, which really says something when you work with Chouno. 

So he finds out about Takase, and finds out about everything else as well. Admittedly, her lies are pretty flimsy in the first place, but when a 17 year old expertly peels away every false pretense she puts up it's hard not to feel inadequate.

Sadayo doesn't even know what _he's_ doing while she's stuck sweeping his room of cat hair and whatever trash he's collected. She assumes Kurusu has been making the most of summer and frequenting the beach, because she keeps finding sand stuck in the floorboards of his attic room. It's that or…

No, that's really the only explanation.

He hasn't completed his summer homework, though, something he winces at once she points it out.

"I've been busy."

"Busy going to the beach?"

Kurusu tenses, but doesn't respond.

"I'm not going to harp on about it, obviously you should be spending time outside during summer. But you haven't even started." She gestures at the packet lying on his desk.

"...Right."

But the next time she visits, it's tucked neatly into his desk's bookshelf, next to a stack of secondhand French books and what looks like a five year old's approximation of a cartoon smoke ball.

It's then that she realizes he doesn't own a single beach towel. There's still sand _everywhere._

What the hell does he _do_ all day?

* * *

When she receives the phone call, the only clear thought she has is _I shouldn't have bought that bun._

Which is stupid.

400 measly yen isn't going to do anything against the oncoming tidal wave of debt that seems to endlessly beat down upon her no matter how many sleepless nights she hurls back, but an irrational gnawing at the back of her mind reasons _well it might have, and there were those new pair of shoes you bought six months ago when the ones you owned probably could have lasted the rest of the year_ and on and on and on -

She _really_ could use some sleep, but instead she dials up her manager for extra shifts. The next morning she's dead on her feet, wishing that exam season would come early so she won't have to do any teaching.

"Kawakami? Are you alright?"

"Huh?" Sadayo blinks awake, realizes she's standing next to the coffee maker in the teacher's lounge, "oh, yes. Sorry, I was… thinking."

Maruki believes her, it seems, and nods. He looks down at his juice box , "Final exams, right? But at least summer vacation is coming up!"

 _A_ _h, right._ The Hawaii trip. It would be exciting if not for the fact she'll need to chaperone dozens of overly excited teenagers. _What a waste of time._

"I sort of wish I could go, I've never been outside the country. My girlfriend always wanted to -" He stops, a sudden expression overtaking him.

"You have a girlfriend?" Sadayo asks, trying to keep the shock out of her voice. Maruki is… a nice man, she supposes. Maybe some people find that charming.

"Ah, it's -" Maruki's smile slips, "We never officially broke up, but…"

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's… she's happier nowadays, though. That's all I could really ask for."

The bell rings, sparing Kawakami from the rapidly growing conversational quicksand that she's digging herself into. As she waves goodbye, Maruki looks like a kicked puppy, and Sadayo briefly considers getting him a souvenir from Hawaii. Or maybe that's in bad taste.

* * *

A week after Kunikazu Okumura dies on live television, Kawakami figures out that her student is the lead suspect.

Kurusu being a Phantom Thief explains… a startling amount, actually. The bent scraps of metal, the fiddling behind his folder when he says he's _slacking off._ Even the way he moves, slinking into shadows and vanishing into crowds.

Not the cat, though. The cat will always be weird.

And the thing about Okumura's death is that she's _pretty sure_ Kurusu wouldn't kill anyone. Despite Shujin's never ending rumor mill, Kurusu is far from the violent, blood craving monster that the students (and the teachers, if Kawakami's being honest) love to paint him as.

So Sadayo doesn't bring up the _hey, did you kill that man on national TV?_ question when she confirms her theory. And Kurusu doesn't mention it either.

"...I've quit the maid work. And this also means I won't be coming along here," she gestures to the attic, "anymore. It's inappropriate."

Kurusu nods.

"You're free to ask me _at school_ for any help with assignments if you like, though. Though you could do that anyway."

Kurusu nods again.

"And…" Sadayo breathes in, "I'm sorry to put you through all this. Any of this, really. Adult problems should be left to the adults. Not burdening kids with this stuff."

Kurusu doesn't respond. 

"It's something only we can do," he says. And he seems convinced about it.

Sadayo is used to some of her students being taller than her, but when Kurusu sits at the edge of his couch, he seems to crumple in on himself.

He's only 17.

"...And I appreciate everything you've done. But… you're young. I know teenagers don't like being reminded of that, but I haven't been the best teacher, or even a _good_ one -"

"But I know so much about literature now." He interrupts, a smirk cutting across his face.

"...Not what I mean. I haven't been a good teacher. I was so caught up in my own troubles I forgot why I was there in the first place." She looks down at Kurusu; his face is inscrutable, as always, the only cues he's ever given hidden deep beneath his glasses and in slight shifts of his lanky limbs. "You shouldn't have to feel like you're in this alone. I'll stand up for you, Kurusu. For all of my other students. I promise."

And Sadayo swears she can see a glimmer of blue flash across Kurusu's lenses, something shattering in the distance before it vanishes completely.

"...Okay."

Kurusu doesn't come after school with questions, though with his grades and circle of friends it shouldn't be too surprising. But when Sadayo talks about her office hours, she sees Kurusu poke Mishima in the shoulder and nod at him.

Mishima is absolutely terrible at literature, but the framework and thesis for his essay is actually very convincing. It's a start.

* * *

When Maruki leaves, the students certainly seem sad, which speaks to how closely the counselor had ingratiated himself to Shujin's population during his brief tenure.

His speech is… odd, to say the least, but sincere. He promises to wish for the students' future success and happiness. Then he bonks his head on the microphone, and sheepishly laughs it off.

"Kawakami-san!"

"Oh, Dr. Maruki." For as many teachers leave Shujin, Sadayo still is never sure what to say when they go. "Going to find another school?"

If it's a bad question Maruki pays no mind, waving one hand with an easy smile on his face.

"Oh, I most likely won't be working at a school for a while. I've completed my research paper and I'll be trying to get it… well, any attention on it would be ideal. I think I've made some real breakthroughs."

"Your… research paper?"

Maruki shifts in his stance at that, but his expression doesn't seem to waver. "It was just something I worked on the side during my time here. It's on _'Interpreting reality through cognitive psience and the alteration of reality via external influence._ Uh, that's _psience_ with a _p._ "

"That's…" Sadayo blinks, doesn't get it at all, "uh, good. Interesting."

Maruki lets out a soft laugh at that. "It's alright, I know it's not the most interesting or… common topic. But I actually did a lot of research on cognitive psience before I came to Shujin! Changing the real world through the individual perceptions of people, how it could be achieved, what that would look like…"

Kawakami stares.

"Well, um, thank you again, Kawakami-san. I had a wonderful time working alongside you and the rest of the school. I learned a lot from all of you."

"Uh - sure. You too."

And Maruki leaves.

* * *

The leader of the Phantom Thieves is captured.

Kurusu disappears.

Sadayo resists the urge to panic every time she sees the empty chair and Takamaki's sullen expression and decides to cover for him instead.

The leader of the Phantom Thieves commits suicide.

Sadayo resists the urge to scream in her tiny bedroom apartment, stomping down well trodden but new guilt and a burning anger at the rest of society that had previously only been a flicker.

There's no _way. There's no_ way. Those _cops_ - _those pigs, he's just a_ kid -

Then, as Takamaki and Sakamoto pass her in the hallway one day with heads held in a conspiratorial whisper, she gets an idea:

"Takamaki-kun, could you come here for a moment? I need to discuss something with you."

The bags under Takamaki's eyes are heavy with sleeplessness, something she's tried to conceal with expensive and well-applied makeup, but Sadayo knows the signs all too well as the blonde girl snaps her head up, twintails trailing behind her. Sakamoto stops in his uneven gait, face shifting from mild nerves to open anxiety. 

"Is… this about my last quiz?" Takamaki asks, in the way only a student who thinks they failed can.

She hadn't, only barely, but Sadayo pauses. Flicks her eyes across the busy hallway.

"Sakamoto-kun, could you come too?"

"Huh?! But I'm not in -" The boy is maybe as unsubtle as can possibly be, but it seems the rest of Shujin is used to his sudden outbursts and has learned to tune them out.

_"Please."_

They clam up at that, sensing the urgency in her voice. Nobody pays them any attention as they walk through the rapidly-emptying hallways, the two blond troublemakers exchanging nervous glances. Sakamoto mouths _"should we run?"_ to Takamaki, which she honestly seems to consider before shaking her head.

Sadayo leads them into an empty classroom, double checks before she shuts the door closed. After an awkward stare-down, she brandishes a folder full of blank homework at them.

"If you could bring these assignments to Kurusu-kun for me, I'd appreciate it. I don't know what he's doing right now or why, but it wouldn't do for him to miss too much school."

The pair gawks with matching expressions.

"How -"

Takamaki elbows Sakamoto in the shoulder, hissing a loud _"Ryuji!"_ before looking back up at Kawakami, "We - don't know where Akira, um, is at the moment, Kawakami-sensei. He just - suddenly vanished!"

Takamaki's voice goes high and unsteady, but Sakamoto nods along to every word.

"Y-yeah, we uh. Yeah! Heard he went home to his family!"

It's the worst attempt at lying Sadayo has ever seen, and she's a teacher and spent three years doing _maid service._ The only bit to even reach the same caliber of unconvincing was Kurusu's fib at fatherhood.

_Teenagers._

She sighs. 

"...Listen, I know you're both doing the same _extracurriculars_ ," She leans heavy on the last word, "and I don't know what exactly you've gotten yourselves into, and I know I probably won't be able to stop you. So…" she holds out the folder.

"Please, stay safe. All of you."

After a disbelieving pause, it's Takamaki who speaks first. "Thank you, Kawakami-sensei."

"...You're not gonna tell anyone about us, are you?" Sakamoto asks, slouched and cautious, an ember flickering behind his eyes as he stares up.

Sadayo shakes her head, and the tension eases. Sakamoto's gaze still hold a distrusting glimmer, but he nods as he takes the folder from Kawakami's hands with surprising gentleness, careful not to crumple the corners.

The door closes behind them. Takamaki and Sakamoto scurry off to, undoubtedly, do whatever their _phantom thievery_ entails.

With an indifference that Shujin has come to expect from her, Sadayo spins some story about _family issues back home_ and _not being sure when he'll be back._ She adds to _send your well wishes to Kurusu, it's a hard time for him_ , even though she knows the only people who would want to do so already know the truth.

In a lot of ways, it's worse than what happened with Takase. At least then she knew what happened.

Or, at least, _thought_ she knew what happened. She's been wrong before.

* * *

Life goes on, and then the world ends.

The sky bleeding red and black bone piercing the earth and foretelling the end of days is not exactly what Kawakami had in mind when she had started the school year, and it certainly isn't her ideal but her life has gotten pretty weird lately.

Kurusu might not exactly be a delinquent, but he's certainly the biggest troublemaker she knows, she thinks, as a towering behemoth stretches across the sky to promise _salvation_ or some other bullshit. Then, a childish voice rings out to _take the world,_ and she's screaming the Thieves' support with a crowd of people as far as the eye can see as they gaze upwards at the thing that calls itself a god. And, then, in a pillar of electric blue and hellish storm clouds, another being cracks the sky.

A problem child through and through.

She spends Christmas Eve by herself and a cup of hot chocolate, thinking about the year to come. Even dares considering what she could do when she's _not_ at school, now that she has the free time.

Then reality stutters like a record, and Sadayo pays no mind.

* * *

Things, for once, seem to be going well. No debts, no part time jobs, no fear of being found out. Her students seem to be paying attention, and maybe that's because she's actually been putting some effort into her teaching. Even her landlord had gotten off his ass for once and fixed the broken hinge on her bathroom window.

Kurusu will be -

\- going to jail, solitary confinement at

\- Shujin a while longer, and

\- he broke probation so

\- his parents 

\- want nothing to do with him

\- are on a trip and they're

\- unsure how long he'll be trapped

\- definitely until the end of the school year, maybe longer.

It's good for a student to stay in one place, anyway, get a consistent education rather than being forced to transfer from place to place. His grades are up too, despite the brief absence, and his social life seems to be doing well.

Sakamoto isn't part of Sadayo's class, but he's - 

\- lucky he could scrape by with his grades

\- the star of the team, she watches Takamaki and Suzui 

\- is far, far away, they

\- clap him on the back, grinning and waving in celebration. He had been

\- ignored, branded a traitor and a failure

\- nervous he wasn't going to get it.

Sadayo's happy for him.

And if the world seems a little off, the lights so bright it's almost blinding? If the smiles on the people she passes by on her way to work seem a little too wide?

When Kurusu and his friends rush past the second the school day ends, they seem… a little sharper, somehow. (Or is everything else just blurry?)

If Takase graduated top of the class at Musashino (in literature, no less) -

\- he had only really wanted to graduate

\- he had sent her a letter thanking -

\- her guilt weighs her down long enough to wonder

for how he's been doing, how his studies have been going. She smiles -

But only for a moment. 

Nothing is wrong. For once, she's been getting enough sleep.

* * *

Sadayo is in -

\- the teacher's office

\- the classroom, lecturing to

\- a crowd of

\- smiling faces that

\- don't care at all

\- the students

\- aren't _listening,_ they're _teachers_

Kurusu's trapped, but he's trying to break free.

* * *

A defiant trickster and a desperate man who thinks he is a god brawl at the edge of a crumbling reality. It is a lonely, useless, one-sided fight, and the victor was decided even before the first punch was thrown.

Sadayo Kawakami does not know this, and neither does the rest of the world, save for a band of panicking teenagers and a single cat cramped in the back of a helicopter.

And reality skips back.

* * *

Sadayo wakes up. Sprawled across her mattress, head pounding and back aching.

Kurusu.

Right.

_Kurusu._

He's still in jail. He's still stuck there, pointlessly, stupidly, for a crime he never committed and a useless testimony. The problem child, the delinquent, her student, who despite everything weaseled his way into Sadayo giving a shit about him (and, really, anything else).

He and his posse of friends are gathering (the troublemakers, of course, but Niijima and Okumura had even found their way into his group. Sadayo tries to ignore the fact that this probably means _they_ were standing right behind him as he declared that _"we will take this country!"_ on a hacked broadcast as well.)

All of them planning to free their friend.

She brushes her teeth. Attempts to apply beyond the bare minimum for makeup before giving up and just covering up her eye bags. The window in her bathroom still sticks, though she could have _sworn_ it finally gotten fixed.

She has a _job_ to do. Has a plan.

She marches to Shujin Academy, head held high. Looks down at a sea of her unconvinced coworkers, too afraid to stand up for anything at all. Remembers what she's fighting for. Remembers what she wants to do.

She slaps her hand down at her desk, staring each and every face in the teacher's lounge as they try and look away. "What good are teachers if they don't believe in their students?!"

* * *

Sadayo honestly hadn't thought about Takuto Maruki ever since he had left Shujin, so when she calls a taxi and _he's_ her driver, it's a bit of a shock. He seems surprised too, though in the same, constantly awkward way she remembers him always being.

She can't tell if that makes it any more or less uncomfortable.

"How have you been? Are you still teaching at Shujin?" Maruki asks when the traffic light stops red.

Sadayo nods. "Next year is starting soon, so we're all in a bit of a rush before things start up again fully. It's stressful, but I actually have more free time nowadays."

"That's good to hear!"

"How did your… thesis go?" Sadayo asks, though she guesses by the taxi she's sitting in that she already knows the answer.

Maruki gives a laugh, short and soft. "Turns out I was completely incorrect! Even if the framework of my theory held some grain of truth to it, in execution it was a total failure."

Sadayo isn't sure if that is how a thesis works, but she's not the one with the doctorate.

"I'm… sorry to hear that."

"Oh, I'm not too upset. It just means I get to look at the world from an entirely new angle!" 

The light blinks green. Maruki takes a right turn without using his signal.

"How is everyone at Shujin, anyway? Are the students doing well?"

"They're… fine, mostly. I have some a transfer coming into my class this year." Sadayo had apparently garnered a reputation of being _the transfer teacher_ after Kurusu's "miraculous transformation" from delinquent to model student.

Even though Kurusu had gone to jail for a month.

"I'm actually going to meet with their guardian now. She hasn't been in school for a while and probably needs someone to help her adjust."

"That's good to hear!"

The ride continues in silence. Sadayo shuffles with the handle of her handbag while Maruki drives.

"You were right, in the end, actually." He says.

"...Huh?"

"About teenagers." He clarifies, "It's impossible to force them to do anything that they don't want to do."

"Um."

"That's a good thing, of course! I hadn't realized it, but sometimes we adults are stuck in our own worldview and need a new perspective on life. Someone who bluntly tells us that we're wrong."

"...Sure?"

Maruki rubs his own cheek, wincing slightly at the memory, "...But Kurusu has one hell of a right hook on him."

"Wait, what do you mean by -"

"And here we are!" He beams without a trace of shame on his face, the taxi coming to a sudden stop outside Shujin's gates, gracelessly parking behind a bright yellow car parked next to the sidewalk. She hadn't even noticed they arrived.

"It was good to see you again, Kawakami-san. I hope the school year goes well for you."

She wordlessly steps out of the taxi and watches as Maruki disappears down the street, and vows to ask Kurusu _what the hell_ the next time he sees him. Until then...

...Sadayo has other things to worry about.

**Author's Note:**

> me three days ago: hey maruki and kawakami are funny coworkers  
> me 13 pages into my google doc: ah shit
> 
> the hardest part about writing this was trying to figure out what honorifics they'd use. like i don't know p5 is so inconsistent if they localize it or keep it as japanese
> 
> so um. yeah! i wrote this. please comment if you enjoyed and i also have a [twitter](https://twitter.com/arisqto) if you want to see me occasionally yell about persona characters


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